Monday, May 26, 2008

Omnibus Memorial Day Weekend Photoblog!

(as always, photos from the Sidekick of the lovely Ms. Trixi B!!)

The weekend started on Friday, when we had drinks with our good friend The Anonymous Poster (who needs to come up with a nickname so I don't have to call them "the anonymous poster") at the amazing Little Cave, an 80s-goth-themed bar in Highland Park. Anonymous Poster sang the praises of Palm Springs -- "if you love mid-century-modern architecture, you'll love it!" they said.

And hey -- we love mid-century-modern architecture. So on Saturday, after breakfast, we headed to Palm Springs -- once the playground of celebrities like Frank Sinatra and Bob Hope (though probably not together) -- to have some dinner and take a few pictures.

This was the sky that day -- ominous and overhung, with huge, black, nasty-looking clouds. It never full-on rained, but it constantly threatened. It was, honestly, kinda pretty.

Holy shit, look at that house, will ya? That's located in one of Palm Springs' housing developments. Built in the late 60s by the Alexander Company, these things were atomic-age marvels. I would just about kill for one of these. Every one has a pool in the backyard, too. And these aren't even the nice houses!

In days of yore, this was a department store in downtown Palm Springs. The sad thing is that the city doesn't seem aware how much architectural wonder they've got -- some of this stuff, at least downtown, is in pretty dessicated condition. Dear Palm Springs: LOVINGLY RESTORE, okay?

Case in point: this tower was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. What you CANNOT see in this lovely picture is that it is shoddily painted PINK. A thick coating of bright-pink and rather crumbling paint coats the thing. And I think the building -- once a hotel -- is abandoned, or nearly so. Gorgeous, though -- look at the molding on the corners.

Then on Sunday, Silver Phial played at a party hosted by the Quarter After's Rob Campanello. We're all huge Quarter After fans, so it was a huge honor.

Here's the "scene" -- it was like friggin' Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls only nobody's head got cut off at the end of the night. That I know of.

Mid-century architecture is the hot topic in preservation circles right now. To be considered historic, a building has to be at least 50 years old. This means many post-WWII structures built during Urban Renewal - long been considered the dark ages in preservation circles - will soon be coming of age. Future preservation activities are now going to focus on saving these structures. Call Alanis...irony much?

You may already know this, but there's a whole initiative for this stuff. This and this is what we do where I work. And this is the national site where you can actually add your photos and stuff to their "windshield survey".